Business Student Ethics: Selected Predictors of Attitudes Toward Cheating

This research addresses the frequently reported finding that business education reduces the ethical sensitivity of students. It presents evidence that supports the view that much of the prior research has relied upon a narrow set of explanatory variables as well as dependent measures of ethical reasoning that often lacked external validity. This research proposes instead, a dependent measure based on students' attitudes toward academic dishonesty and the use of two additional independent variables, locus of control and personality type. In an empirical study,both locus of control and personality type were found to significantly influence students' attitudes to academic dishonesty. Students who studied business however, were no more tolerant of academic dishonesty than students in other programs. Nor did they have a different locus of control or personality-type. Locusof control and personality type were however,significantly correlated. Findings also support the predictive utility of using cheating to understand ethical attitudes in general.     

The Effect of Business Education on the Ethics of Students: An Empirical Assessment Controlling for Maturation

This study empirically assesses the relative impact of business education on students' ethics while accounting for the potentially confounding effects of maturation and starting position. It finds that business education does not negatively effect the ethical development of students relative to the effect caused by non-business education.